The 68th Annual Hunger Games
by EmelieEmelie
Summary: This story follows local district 5 girl Ginny Cade through the 68th annual hunger games. Everything from the reaping 'till the very end. The only question is: will she survive or will she die? Rated K to begin with, but will be rated T further in. Please Review so that I can hear your thoughts about my very first story.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Reaping

_Dear diary…_

_I'm really scared. It's about nine in the evening and I'm about to go to bed. But I don't want to. I don't want it to be tomorrow, ever. Tomorrow's reaping day. I have never had to put my name in extra times, so since I am fifteen, my name will only be on four times. But there's still a chance. Not a very big one but still. My silver-white dress is already hanging on my door. It's my favorite dress, though right now, every time I look at it I get scared of what might happen._

_Last year, some scary ruthless career boy from district 1 won. I'll probably never be brave enough to go up against someone like that._

_Good night and hopefully I will write again soon._

_Ginny…_

"Goodnight!" I called through the door way. I heard my father shout goodnight back, but I could hear the cracking in his voice.

It was just me and my dad in my life. When I was four months old, my brother got reaped. From what my father told me, he was killed by a career two days into the game. He sliced every part of my brother open and then the career just let him bleed to death. My mother couldn't stand it, so she committed suicide. Reaping day always reminded my father off those two events. He was always very sad the days around reaping day, but who could blame him?

I woke up the next morning, sweaty and hyperventilating. Nightmares, like every year. I dreamed that I was reaped, but when I got in to the arena, I suffered the same kind of death. But once I died, I woke up and walked away unharmed. That happened again and again until I woke up for real.

No way I was going back to sleep so I got up and went into the shower to wake up and wash my hair. On the way back to my bedroom I heard my father. He was asleep, but he was moaning and said "No, no" over and over. He was probably having nightmares just like me.

Once I had put on some clothes, I went down the stairs and in to the kitchen to put on some tea. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't force down some sandwiches or porridge.

"Morning sweetness" said my father when he entered the kitchen and started to pour some tea for himself.

"Morning" I answered him instead. I chose to not mention that I heard him before. That would only make him more worried.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Not really" I answered. "I had a dream about Darren." Darren was my brother. Father only nodded. He almost never talked to me about Darren, one of the only times was when he told me how Darren died. Though, he could talk about mother.

"You should go up and get yourself ready" said father. "We don't want to be late."

"Alright" I answered. But before I walked out I kissed my father on the head.

The dress I wore had belonged to my mother. She had worn it on her reaping when she was fifteen. As I said, it was like silvery-white. The fabric was chiffon and it ended right below my knees. Strapless with an empire waist that was shown with a black ribbon.

I matched it up with a pair of simple black ballet sandals and quite wavy hair. The only makeup I wore were some lip gloss and a little silver eye shadow. No mascara, since I didn't own any.

After I decided that I looked good enough my eyes where immediately drawn to my desk. I had a picture of my mother there. The picture was taken after her last reaping, on a big celebration party.

I resembled my mother Kara very much. I had gotten her green eyes, reddish-brown hair and smile. Father always said that he "saw my mother's spirit inside me".

"Oh dear" said my father from the door. I hadn't noticed when he came so I was quite startled. "It's just like having Kara back. You're so beautiful Ginny."

"Thank you" I said and tried to hold back the tears. What if… Father hurried to my side and hugged me tightly. "I love you, father…"

"I love you too, Ginny. More than you know. Dear lord, is that the time? We have to go sweetness."

I nodded and we went out in the sun. I held my father's hand tightly the whole way. _Never let go_, I thought, but when we came to the square I had no choice. Father gave me a quick hug.

"Good luck sweetness" he said. " If you come back we'll have a very nice dinner. You and me."

"_When_ I get back father" I answered, trying to reassure him. "_When_." Father nodded.

"When", he agreed.

I slowly walked towards the crowd with fifteen year-old girls and waited. _Please don't let it be me! Please don't let it be me!_ Other children in different ages started to get there too. Two children, one boy and one girl were holding hands tightly and then separated to stand on each genders side of twelve year-olds. It was there first time and they looked so scared. At least they had each other. I didn't have anybody except father. I had no friends. None… Almost every kid thought that my family was scary because my mother killed herself and my brother died the way he did.

"Welcome everybody to another exciting day!" said a high-pitched voice with the silly capitol accent. It was Flower, district 5's "name caller". She got her name for always wearing something with flowers. She was only one from the capitol I knew that wore clothes that weren't completely dreadful. Today she wore a short dress, completely covered in blue Lily's and a giant hat that looked like a big pink rose on the top of her forest green hair.

"Welcome to the reaping of the 68th annual hunger games" she continued. "First we will all watch a wonderful movie and then we will choose this year's brave warriors." _Like we hadn't done that before_. I didn't watch the movie, I'd already seen it three times before and it was just as boring every time.

"Bullshit" I whispered quietly while the film was going.

"Ahh, it goes straight in to my heart every time" said Flower suddenly, she wiped a tear of her cheek. "Wouldn't you agree?" No one answered. "Alright then. Ladies first!" Flower took a couple of seconds to choose a name. It was so quiet you could hear a needle fall and my heart was pounding to hard I was afraid it would jump out. "The lucky chosen one is… Ginny Cade!"

_No! No! NO! It can't be true! Surely it's a nightmare! It has to be one. It can't be me._

"Ginny dear, where are you?" called Flower. "Come up now darling!"

Slowly I made my way up to the stage. I knew that no one would volunteer, but I was still hoping. _Just look neutral! Don't show any emotion and walk steady!_

"Congratulations dear!" said Flower and placed me in the middle of the stage. "Let's see who your district partner will be. Boys are you ready?" Again, no one answered, but Flower didn't seem put down by that. She just floated on a cloud to the next glass ball and chose a name. "Alec Tron!"

Alec was in my class, an outsider just like me. Everyone knew that his name was a version of the word _electron _ and everyone teased him about it. Though I thought it was cool. He was quite cute too, he had red, spiky hair and a lot of freckles. The eyes were a dark shade of brown. Like chocolate.

Alec made his way to the stage and our eyes met. Even in the situation I couldn't help but feel a slight tingle in my stomach. Silly huh?

"The tributes from district 5 of the 68th annual Hunger games! Give them all a warm applause!" said Flower. There was a short applause before Flower took us into the justice building.

I was seated in a very luxurious room. The walls were white and so were the chiffon curtains. There was a big red couch made of velvet with golden knobs. Something else that also was made of gold was the table in front of the couch.

Father was the only one that would come to see me off, I knew that. Since mother and Darren was dead and I had no friends. Suddenly the door opened and there he stood. My father… His eyes were red and swollen of crying and his beard was wet from all the tears.

"My girl" he said. "My Ginny… No!" He ran towards me and embraced me. Both of us let our emotions out. We cried and cried until father started to speak, his voice cracked all the time. "Listen to me Ginny. You can't die. I won't have anything left to live for, but listen; you can win! You're smart, fast and very nifty with your hands. You will easily learn the survival skills, then you just have to wait until everyone has died."

"That's all?" I didn't know what to say so I just embraced my father again. "I love you so much, father! You're the best dad ever and even if I don't make it out. Stay strong, for me. Okay? Dad, stay strong!"

"That's the first time you called me dad and not _father_. I like _dad_ better."

"Okay. Dad…"

"I love you too Ginny. You have to stay strong too. _For me_."

Then a peacekeeper came and told us time was up. I yelled to my father that I loved until I couldn't speak anymore. By that time I sank down on the couch and waited for Flower to take me to the train that would lead to my death.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys. Sorry it took so long to update. New year's got in the way, but now I have and I hope you will like it.**

Chapter 2 – Meeting my mentor

The train that Flower took us to was also incredibly luxurious. Every table was black as night and shined, all the chairs had a draping of velvet and every window had chiffon curtains.

Alec looked at it like he'd gone to heaven. The poor guy… His family was one of the poorest in the district, he was the only child and he and both of his parents worked at the power plant, though it was barely enough to support them.

Flower took us into a room full of food and drinks.

"Sit down my darlings" she said and almost pushed us down in to two chairs next to each other. "This year, one mentor will take care of you both. He'll be here soon."

Only minutes later, a man walked in. He was tall and fit with golden blonde hair, though the one thing that got me to recognize him immediately was his eyes. They were golden, brown and somehow still yellow. Like amber. It was James Atom.

He won the game eleven years ago. After that he got the nickname "Amber-Eye" because he was active during the night and spied on his victims while they were sleeping. The only thing you could see in the dark was his yellow eyes, just like an animal. Therefore the name.

"Hello" said James with a very dark voice and sat down across us. "My name is James Atom and I'll be your mentor this year. I would like to talk to you two alone, Flower do you mind?"

"Of course not, darling" answered Flower. "I will just go and get my hat polished." She tiptoed away through an automatic door.

James turned to us and sighed. "First of all I have to say that I'm really sorry for what happened to you two. If I could change it I would, but I'm not President Snow."

Alec nodded but I didn't do anything, I was too paralyzed to really understand anything that happened, I just looked at James. After the reaping I went into a stage of shock. I couldn't understand that this was really happening. That soon, in just a couple of weeks I would be dead.

"When we get to the capitol tomorrow you will meet with your personal prep-team and then there's the tribute parade. You're free to do almost whatever you want to on this train, but I suggest that you rest as much as you can because believe me, you will need it. If you come with me I will show you to your rooms."

James got up and waited for us to do the same. Alec and I got up to and followed him through an automatic door, through a long hallway and into an empty space. In that empty space there was a number of doors around on the walls. They were marked with 1,2,3 and so on.

"Alec, your room is number two and Ginny, your room is number three" said James. "Everything you will need is in there, but you can wander around almost anywhere."

"Okay" said Alec quiet and walked in to his room.

"Thank you" I said.

"Anytime" said James smiling. Then he walked towards door one, went in and closed the door behind him.

I slowly opened the door to room number three and walked in. The first thing I noticed was the giant bed. It looked very modern and the sheets and pillows was of black satin, the two small tables on each side of the bed looked just as modern. The walls were white with a slight hint of very light blue. There was a big, white wardrobe at the end of the room. Beside there was another door. When I went in there I realized that it was a bathroom.

Everything that I could see was either white as snow or golden, though it was most of the details and finishing touches that were of gold, like all the edges of the shower, the sink and patterns in the walls.

Honestly, nothing I could think about helped me to feel calmer, so I decided to take a shower to wash of my makeup that probably looked like a real mess by know and to at least try to calm down.

It didn't work. At all… I tried to sing the song my father always sang to me when I was to go to bed in the night, but my voice cracked too much for it to work.

James told us to rest as much as we could, it seemed like a good idea. Maybe I could wake up late and realize that it was all just a really, really, _really_ bad dream. But when I of course got nightmares when I eventually managed to fall asleep it all seemed hopeless.

In the dream I screamed and screamed out of pure pain. Now I can't even remember why I was screaming or why I felt the pain. It was just there. Like a thousands of knife stabs on my body, only a hundred times worse. Somewhere far away I heard someone scream my name. It was a boy. Then I woke up and realized that I had been screaming for real, in my sleep. The boy who'd been screaming my name to get me to wake up was Alec. Now he was sitting on the knees, facing me and I guess that he'd been shaking my shoulders because they were placed on them. Around him, a lot of avoxes were standing, looking worried.

"Ginny" he said. "It's okay, it was just a dream. You're okay now." I placed my hands over my face and started to sob. Alec told the avoxes to leave so they did. Then sat down next to me on the bed and drew me into his arms and embraced me soothingly. He shushed quietly to me and leaned his cheek on my head.

Normally I would have been embarrassed, but now I was just happy he was there, and honestly how come this guy was an outsider? He was an amazing person.

When I finally took away my hands and just leaned into him a felt that same tingle in my stomach again. Alec released me and walked into the bathroom, then came back with a glass of water.

"Thanks" I said weakly when he gave it to me. I emptied the entire glass in almost one sip.

"Are you alright now?" asked Alec. I nodded. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." He gave me one quick tap on the shoulder before he walked out.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around in the train. During the evening I surprisingly got hungry when I tried to rest again. First then I noticed two different remotes. One was for food, so when I turned it on it showed a menu. Eventually I chose chicken-meatloaf with rice and some kind of creamy mushroom sauce. Then it just appeared warm and ready to eat. Even though I was really hungry I couldn't get much down so I put it aside.

After that I went to bed, dreamed nightmares _again _ and when I woke up with a stomach that was growling like crazy, I chose the same kind of food again and ate everything very quickly. Then I fell asleep faster than I had done in days.

_I was running through the forest in the arena. The mutts were after me. I could hear them running and growling after me. But no matter how fast I ran I never got away and the way just got harder and harder to get past. Then they were suddenly surrounding me. Giant beasts with claws and teeth like knifes and glowing red eyes. I didn't know how or when but suddenly they had knocked me down and were growling me in the face and a large piece of drool ran down on my face. Its breath was horrible. A scream echoed through the arena and I realized that it was my own, when the mutts started to eat me alive. I screamed and screamed and screamed until…_

I woke up! I could barley catch my breath and realized that was lying on the floor, I must have rolled over and fallen out of bed and that's what woke me up. Outside the sun was steaming in so I guessed that it was morning. When I got on the train decided to refuse the capitol clothes so took on my reaping dress. My hair looked like a mess so quickly combed it with my fingers and putted it a high ponytail. Then I went out to the room we were in when we first met James.

James, Flower and Alec were all sitting at a table full of breakfast. Toast, cereal, jam, marmalade, milk, juice, coffee, hot chocolate, butter and ten different kinds of applications.

"Good morning, Ginny" said James when he saw me enter. "Sit." He pointed towards an empty chair beside Alec. He smiled and pulled it out for me. I smiled back when I sat down, but I didn't eat anything. Alec was already drinking a cup of tea and eating and big bowl of cereal.

"Ginny, you have to eat something" said James kindly. "It'll be a very long day, the prep team and the tribute parade."

"We will be arriving in half an hour so you should get started" said Flower. Alec poured a cup of hot chocolate to me. "Here" he said. I only drank from it to be polite, but when I did start the hunger slowly crept up on me so started to eat a piece of toast.

"Rise and shine kids!" called Flower. "We have arrived!"

**To be continued in "Preparations". It'll probably be posted in a couple of days if nothing gets in my way of writing. I would really appreciate if you reviewed. It would help me to become a better writer if I could hear/read ;) your thoughts. Thank you! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we have chapter three. Hope you like it. **

Chapter 3 – Preparations

Before we stepped out of the train James told us to smile and wave all the way to the prep-center. We tried but both Alec and I thought it was hopeless since we hated the capitol and its people.

A big, black car took us from the train station where it felt like every single capitol citizen was cheering and watching us. They looked awful every single one of them. Way too skinny and with weird looking colors all over. The car took us to a big blue building with the label: preparations center. We barely had time to say good bye to James before a woman with pink and purple hair and her body colored turquoise came and asked us which district we came from. After we told her that we were from five she took us away from James and led us to two prep rooms. She send me into one and Alec into the other.

Once I was in there I waited for my prep team.

The first thing I thought when they entered was that they all looked like birds. They smiled at me when they saw me and then they got started.

"Alright" said the only man in the trio. "Strip!" He had dark skin, light green hair and beard which was formed like sea waves. If I would have seen him randomly I would have thought that he rooted for district four because of his beard.

"Oh don't mind Chester, sweetie" said one of the two women with a strange chipmunk like voice. "He's been weird ever since he changed his hair color." They all laughed mechanically. "For the love of president Snow! We haven't introduced us yet. I'm Dee Dee. This is Chester…" she pointed at the man "…and this is Sonna." Sonna had purple hair and lips and her entire body was colored light blue.

Dee Dee had neon yellow and orange curls for hair golden tattoos in her face.

"You are quite the beautiful one aren't you?" asked Sonna when I had taken off all of my clothes and I guessed that it was a rhetorical question.

"Let's start by washing her up quickly before we wax" said Chester and started to take down different kinds of soaps from a shelf.

After they washed me with five different kinds of soaps which made the room hard to breathe in. They started to wax me. I had never experienced something like that before and pain almost killed me. I tried really hard to not complain because I knew that in their own stupid way they were actually trying to help me. They got rid of my hair all over my legs, arms, most of my eyebrows and pretty much everywhere else. Except on my head of course.

"Time for scrubbing!" exclaimed Dee Dee. "Get the cream!" I couldn't understand why Dee Dee seemed so happy about the scrubbing. Not only did it remove all the dirt from my skin it felt like ripping it off me and left me all reddish-pink and paining.

"We should use the moisturizing cream on her skin before we start with the hair" said Chester with a look of thinking that only made him look scarier then he already looked in my eyes.

The cream they used first burned but then it healed my paining skin made it feel like soft baby butt.

Apparently it was time for my hair they immediately seated me in a chair in front of a sink. They washed it with many different kinds of shampoos and soaps. The result was that it felt soft and shiny like silk.

"Don't you think we should use our latest miracle on her?" asked Sonna Chester.

"Sonna darling, you truly are a genius" answered Chester smiling. "Dee Dee! Get our latest miracle!"

"Brilliant!" said Dee Dee. She took a giant tube with some kind of paste that matched my hair color.

Chester poured it on my head and massaged it in my scalp.

"Now, sweetie you need to stay still in an hour so this paste can do its job" said Chester.

"What does it do?" I asked.

"You'll see" answered Chester as he placed me in front of a mirror. "Sit still sweetie while we wait."

The wait was killing me. And I didn't even know what I was waiting for, but the worst thing was that the paste gave me a really scratchy feeling in my scalp and every time I tried to scratch myself Chester shrieked and slapped my hand away.

"Don't touch, you'll mess up the work!" he shrieked.

A half an hour after Chester first massaged it in, I saw the difference in my hair. Before my eyes out of nowhere my hair started to grow. Not fast at all, but fast enough to see the difference.

"Chester!" called Dee Dee with her wired chipmunk voice. "Chester! It's working! Come look!"

"Marvelous!" said Chester proudly. "I knew it would work."

"Very well too" said Sonna. "It looks perfect and will go just right with everything Jessna planned."

"Who's Jessna" I asked suddenly scared.

"Don't worry about Jessna, Ginny" said Sonna and gave me a tab on the cheek. "Just don't make any sudden movements when you're around her. That could trigger her."

"What do you mean with '_trigger her'_?" I asked. What the heck could that mean?

"Her cannibalism of course" said Dee Dee as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "She has a habit of eating tributes alive if they disappoint her."

"W…What" I stammered. That couldn't be true, could it? I mean I knew that the capitol people were crazy but _cannibalism_? That should at least be breaking the law right? Right?

Sonna, Chester and Dee Dee all laughed loudly.

"We are just messing with you" said Dee Dee smiling. "Of course she doesn't eat tributes. She's the nicest woman in the world." Okay, not funny. Not funny at all.

After reassuring me enough that the Jessna person didn't eat tributes Chester washed the paste out of my hair that had now gone from just-above-shoulder length to waist length. Then Dee Dee worked on my nails, cutting them even and painting them in a yellow color. Why yellow? I wondered but Dee Dee just answered "You'll see…" Why did they always have to say that? Why couldn't they just give a straight answer?

When they were done with everything, three and a half hour after I got there They called for that Jessna person and by now I guessed that she was going to be my stylist.

They left me while I waited. Soon she appeared. She looked quite normal for being a capitol citizen. Her hair was black, but her bangs and part of her hair around was colored turquoise and her eyes were in about the same color. She was very tall and thin.

"Hello, Ginny" she said. "I'm Jessna. Your stylist. Come with me so we can talk a little."

I followed her into a room where the walls were entirely made of glass and the floor of marble. Every furniture was white. The couches, the tables, a big wing, even the plants. We sat down in one couch each, so that we sat across each other.

"So" started Jessna. "I assume that you know district 5's main industry?"

"Yes, power and electricity" I answered immediately.

"Exactly" said Jessna and studied me. "We have an idea of your outfit for the tribute parade. "I see that Dee Dee has painted your nails in yellow. That's a good thing."

I looked down on my bright yellow nails and got confused. How could yellow make you think electricity? "Why" I asked.

"You'll see…"

**I hope you liked this chapter and don't forget to review ;). Now I've done some planning and decided that this story will contain 23 chapters. So three down, twenty to go… **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! Guys I'm so so so sorry I haven't updated until now. It completely slipped out of my mind, but that's no excuse so the only thing I can do is to say I'm sorry. I'll try to get some more fluff in, but I'm not very good at writing that so forgive me if it it's weird or something. I want to say thank you to the two of you that is following this story. It means so much to me that you like it! THANK YOU! :D I hope you stay with me. But now: back to the story. **

Chapter 4 – The Tribute Parade

Now I understood why Dee Dee had painted my nails in a bright yellow color and why Jessna had said that it was good. I was dressed in a bright yellow dress, with golden sequins that was going in a pattern upwards towards my head. Three lightning bolts each stood out from my shoulders. There was a 3D model of an atom around me which made it difficult to raise my arms and to crown everything I had a glowing bulb on my head.

Alec was dressed almost the same, except that he didn't wear a dress (though I hadn't been surprised if he would have ). He wore a bright yellow shirt and pants which clashed very ugly with his red hair. Though he still looked very cute. I blushed when I saw him enter, he looked very weird with those clothes on, but they had made him very beautiful. I mean more than he was before.

Now we were waiting to step on the chariot. We didn't speak very much. Alec stared right in front of him where the district four crew was helping the tributes with their clothes. They were dressed as pirates. Stupid…

"We look _ridiculous_" I said, just because I felt pressured to show the others that we weren't enemies and even how silly and goofy it sounded I wanted to talk to him.

"We do, don't we?" Answered Alec and finally tearing his gaze away from district four to look at me. I felt myself blushing when he did and looked away. God, I had to stop acting like this. _That _ was ridiculous if something.

Now I felt like I had to say something. I knew that I was going to die and Alec, the gorgeous guy standing beside me was the only one that had ever made my heart go haywire and making me blush so far. _Say something, Ginny!_

"So…" I started, not sure on what to say next. "What do you think about these costumes?"

"Well, ridiculous like you said" answered Alec. "But we've already gone through that." He said that very non-caring, almost cold.

"Why are you being so rude to me?" I asked. "I haven't done you anything."

He looked at me for a second, then he looked down on the floor, ashamed. "I'm sorry" he said. "It's just, this whole thing is getting on my nerves. Everything. The capitol, the tributes who actually enjoys this, Caesar's 'oh my god this is fabulous' comments. It just makes me angry."

"It's okay" I said. "You have every right to be."

"_Tributes, step on to your chariots and get ready for start_" said a cool man's voice. Alec stepped on to the chariot and offered me his hand. "Milady" he said jokingly. I laughed, took it and stepped on also. Then he kissed it.

"Alright, my darlings" called Flower who just came to join us in the last moment. "Straighten your backs, chins up, wave and smile! They will love you!"

"Good luck" said James. "And, what she said." He nodded at Flower and winked at us.

The first that went off was district one. They were dressed as a king and queen couple. The boy was wearing a big crown, a red cloak, a lot of jewelry and he help a scepter in one hand and was waving big to the audience, almost too big. He almost knocked the girl's tiara of her head. Besides the tiara, she wore a long silver dress and jewels in different colors everywhere. They had a bright smile on her face, revealing perfect white teeth.

District 2, 3 and 4 went off. Then it was our turn. The capitol citizens cheered, laughed, waved back at us and Caesar commented every little thing.

"_There comes district 5_!" his voice called through the arena. "_They are two very fine fifteen year olds, with beautiful costumes and bright faces. Look at them! They look like the power itself! Very creative by their stylists and they sure do look fantastic_!"

After those compliments, I felt more eager, strangely enough. So I fired my best and charming smile and waved more to the audience. Well mostly I was waving to my dad. I didn't know if he was watching or not, but I imagined that it was dad sitting there in the audience and not those dreadful capitol people who enjoyed seeing innocent children murder each other.

After we had been dragged around by those chariots, President Snow made his speech. The same speech he made every year. Later they played the national anthem and after that we got to go… Well, definitely not _home _ but to the apartment where we were going to stay between, training and interviews.

"Ginny, Alec!" said James when we arrived. "Change into something more comfortable and then we will discuss some important things before dinner. We nodded and walked to our rooms.

I decided on the train to refuse capitol clothes, but now I had no choice but to break the promise I made myself. Unless I wanted to go naked of course, but I was thinking rather not.

I changed to a pair of jeans and a purple, glittery jumper before heading out to the living room where James was waiting.

"Alec hasn't arrived yet?" I asked.

"No, he'll probably come soon" answered James and pointed to the couch across him. "Sit."

We fell into an uncomfortable silence. Well, uncomfortable for me since I didn't know what to say. I didn't have anything against James, but he was so hard to talk to.

"How are you feeling" asked James and I jumped. Honestly, not very good.

"Quite bad" I answered. "Not physically, just mentally. I will never be able to kill people. I don't understand how you managed it."

"I used to think like you in the beginning. Then something snapped in me, I understood that it was only survival."

"But I can't kill anybody. I _won_'_t _ kill anybody."

"I understand, Ginny. But you also have to understand that this whole thing is about bravery. I can only prepare you but when you actually _are_ out there, courage will be the only thing mattering. It takes courage to stay alive and it takes courage to kill someone. That courage is inside you. You have an amazing heart, which says to you that it's wrong and it is, but if you want to stay alive, you might have to let go for a while and reach in and grab that courage and use it. Use it to stay alive, do you understand?

I nodded and felt tears forming in my eyes. "It's just so unfair" I sobbed. "This whole stupid thing. Why me? Why anybody."

James reached out and grabbed my hand. "There it is again" he said smiling at me.

"What" I asked, my voice cracking.

"Your kind and beautiful heart. You care about others in a way I haven't seen in quite some time. With that kindness and courage I know is inside of you, you can easily win this. It's not about murder, it's about courage to do what has to be done and cleverness. You don't need a weapon to kill someone and you definitely don't need to do it personally. You'll see what I mean soon."

I smiled weakly at James and he took a tissue and wiped my tears from my face.

"So" he said. "Is there anything you want to discuss with me without Alec?" The moment he said "Alec" I felt the now familiar tingle in my stomach.

"No" I answered. "I have no skill, in anything really. Sure, maybe I know a few plants, but how's that gonna help me?"

"It will help you with finding food. Anything else? Are you fast, strong, quick minded, a leader?"

"I'm definitely not a leader, that's for sure. I'm quite fast, I guess, not very strong, I assume that I'm pretty smart and quick minded…"

"Sorry for interrupting, but why assume that?" asked James suddenly.

"I… I went to a lot of quiz contests and I usually got to the final five. When I face a problem, I solution usually pops up in my head fast."

"Good. That very good. Anything else?"

Before I got to answer, Alec entered. He wore a black shirt that showed off his abs, but I tried really hard to not look or think about it. He sat down next to me and smiled. God how I loved that smile! _Embarrassing_!

"Hi, Ginny" Alec said.

"Ehh… Hey" I answered stupidly.

"So Alec is there anything you want to talk about just you and me?" asked James Alec, saving my butt from an awkward silence.

"Not really, No" answered Alec.

"Okay, what would you consider yourself best at? Anything from fighting to survival."

"Hmmm… Probably something with fighting. Fighting with spears maybe. I used to fight with my older brother with sticks when I was younger." That memory seemed to make him smile.

"Not bad. You should practice some with that and show it off in the private session. But both of you: learn something new. How to make fire, climb, camp sport, camouflage, throwing knifes or something else you think you use in the arena."

"Alright" answered Alec. "I should probably focus on survival, especially finding food and water."

"I should learn to climb, both trees and rocks and some weapon training. That would be useful" I said.

"Learn to make snares would also be good" said James.

We talked some more and planned, but it was what I did afterwards that was at same time smart, but at the same time a big mistake.

"Alec!" I called after him as he went to his room after our chat with James. "Alec, wait!"

"Come with me" he just said and continued to walk. I walked after him, though I had no idea where we were going. Though I was sure of one thing. We really needed to talk.

He walked to his room and stood by the door, as like he was waiting for me to follow him inside. Whence I did that he closed the door.

"We can't be friends in training" I said, going straight to my case and I could see in his eyes that he was hurt, but was thinking the same thing.

"I know" Alec said quietly. "The other tributes could use that against us."

"Exactly. So we can be friends, even allies if you want to as long as we don't show it the other tributes."

Something in Alec's eyes lit up. "You want to be my allay?"

"If you want to…"

"Sure." He smiled at me. "Deal? He reached out his hand.

"Deal" I said and shook it.

**Thanks for reading and as always, please hit the review button and leave a thought so that I can improve. ;) To be continued in "Training part 1" . Hugs to all of you out there reading my story! And of course everyone else! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's chapter 5! Hope you will all like it! Now I actually have an excuse for not updating so often. I'm writing a Haysilee story too. It's just a one-shot, nothing big but it's been in my mind forever an I need to get it out. I don't know how long it will be before it's posted. We'll see.**

**Bamlts Tyler: Thank you so much for reviewing and for those nice words! They made my day. :D **

Chapter 5 – Training part 1

I hugged Alec impulsively after we shook hands. Why, why, why? But it could also be a good thing, right. Maybe, maybe not. I didn't know!

"Right" I said. "You know what… I have to and… Yeah go, so… Bye!" The next thing I knew I was storming out of there, leaving Alec smiling behind me.

I ran to my room, closed the door behind me and sank down on to my bed. What the heck was I doing? I was not meant to fall in love or have a crush or whatever on my district partner! For all I knew he could be thinking about a way to kill me right now. But then, why did he agree to an alliance? Was he nursing me to a false sense of trusting? Honestly? In my heart I knew he wasn't, but still. There was a chance.

"Dinner!" called Flower over the apartment while she rang in a silly little clock. I had gotten a bit confused and therefore grumpy after thinking about everything, Flower wasn't very pleased when I sat down as far away from everyone as possible. "Come on, Ginny! Show some excitement! At least sit with us." When I shook my head James stood up, walked across the table and sat down next to me. I immediately stood up. Now purely angry, though at the time I wasn't sure why.

"I don't want your company!" I shouted. "You're all destroying my life! All of you! Why do you even bother keeping me alive? Why don't you just kill me here and now? It's better than this! It's disgusting!"

"Ginny…" said James after I had finished screaming, he tried to reach for my arm soothingly but I yanked it away so sudden I almost slapped him across the face.

"No!" I screamed. "Don't touch me! Just leave me alone!" I ran away from the dining room. As quick as I could to my room. I tried to hold off the tears, but I couldn't stop one or two before I reached my room. When I was there, I just felled down on my bed and tears started to stream down my face.

Later, Alec stopped by to talk to me. He said that he didn't blame me for what I said, but I could still see in his eyes how hurt he'd been when I said that destroyed my life and I had called him disgusting. He convinced me to apologize to James for being so unfriendly, so I did and luckily he wasn't angrier than Alec had been. Which was almost not at all.

Flower woke us up the next day. The first day of training. God, I was nervous! What if I didn't do well or sucked at everything? No, no don't think like that I told myself all the time but that didn't stop the knot in my stomach to painfully remind me that it was there.

"You'll do fine" whispered Alec when we headed down to the training. "But remember…"

"…We don't like each other" I finished. We had a tactic. If we could fool the other tributes that we didn't like each other then they wouldn't try to use us against one another.

"Exactly. We're almost there. Put on your _you_-_hate_-_me _ face."

I smiled a little bit before putting on the most serious and confident face I could come up with.

There were already some tributes in the training center when we got there. A couple of giant and fit somebody's stood a couple of feet away from a podium, talking confidently as if to proof that they didn't give a damn. I knew them as the tributes from district 1, 2 and the boy from four. A boy with ash-grey skin and messy black hair stood as far away from the careers as possible, he looked at everything with a calculating look that immediately made me decide to watch out for him. I knew he was from district three. Industry and technology. That probably made him just as smart as the population from my district where technology is essential to make electricity. The last to that had arrived before us was a pair that I guessed was from the same district. One girl with a shy look, strawberry blonde hair and very dark brown eyes looked down on the floor, while the boy standing in front her had the same dark brown eyes, but his hair was raven black. He looked even more grumpy than I had the day before.

A woman named Atala gave us some instructions. After that we got walk freely between the stations. I made some traps, started a fire and learned some about where to find fresh water. Then I decided I had no other choice but to walk over to the weapon stations. Something I had carefully avoided since we got there. I knew I was lousy at handling a weapon.

After deciding that knife throwing probably suited me best I walked over there and chose a knife with great care. It wasn't big, but it was a start. I walked over an available dummy and prayed to every lord there was that I wouldn't miss it. A deep breath, aiming and throw! It hit the dummy's wrist. I aimed for the chest…

"You know, 5" said a bitching voice behind me. "It's easier if you aim." Of course, I thought. It was the girl from one. A career, that probably knew all about knife throwing and was just about to show it off.

Like I just said, she walked over to the set with knifes and picked out the biggest one. She threw it so hard that it fell down on the floor right after the knife had hit it in the heart. "See?" the girl said and gave me a false smile. The girls from 2 and 4 laughed.

_Don't answer_! _Don't answer_! _DON'T answer_! I clenched my hands to fists when I walked away without a word, looking as confident and untouched as possible. Probably unsuccessful, though.

I walked straight over to the climbing station, where I started to climb up a fake tree. Once I got to the top I looked out over the training centre. Alec was talking to a trainer at the wresting station. The girls from 1, 2 and 4 were all at the archery station. The boy from 1 was sword fighting. The boy from 3 was making fire. The girl with the strawberry blonde hair was tying knots and two tributes that both looked very pale and thin was desperately reading about edible plants.

The instructor at the climbing station taught very useful things about climbing trees and rocks and also how to use climbing gear.

The next day went by about the same. I learned some useful things here and there, especially at the martial arts station, some very useful kicks and blocks that I could show off in the private session. I got the tracking instructor impressed by waiting to be last in the centre before lunch and then I ran a forest path rigged with traps, no problems at all. I improved slightly in knife throwing, my best hit so far was in the stomach. It wouldn't be enough to kill someone but enough to get away.

Though it was the next day that got me on edge. The next day was the private sessions…

**I'm hoping that the next chapter will be posted soon. I'll try to make it but I've gotten a bad fever so we'll see! Don't forget to review! ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everybody! I'm really proud to present this chapter because it's the longest one so far. It is called "Training part 2" but it will honestly focus more on the Ginny/Alec relationship than the actual training but I hope that you will like it anyway. This is my first time writing fluff so forgive me if it's a little weird. Though please leave a review with tips if you have some so that I can improve my fluff-writing skills. Back to the story!**

Chapter 6 – Training part 2

I was already awake when Flower came bursting in to wake me up and to remind me that today was the private sessions. In fact, I had already showered, changed, eaten... Well, at least I tried to eat breakfast in my room but couldn't get down much. Typical me… When she came in I just sat down on my bed, forcing the little breakfast I had managed to eat to stay down.

"Come on, darling!" called Flower with her annoying perky capitol voice. "We have to get down soon and James wants to talk to you before that!" To the honor of the day, Flower wore a long green dress that looked like it was covered in grass and on top of that, a white jacket covered in pink Lily's. Flower's hair or rather wig looked like some kind of elegant and complicated up-due that I couldn't help but think it looked beautiful. The only thing messing anything up was the fact that her hair was blue.

As we walked I could feel my noisiness get worse and it made it really hard to walk without feeling dizzy. The dizziness stopped a bit when Flower pushed me down in a chair but it was still there.

"Alright you two" said James to me an Alec who had already entered. "Let's talk serious. Today's the private sessions as you already know, so the question is: do you want to get high points to intimidate the other tributes and impress the sponsor's right away?, or do you want get low points so that the other tributes will not think of you as a threat and hopefully leave you alone in the arena and show off your skills _in _ the arena so that the other tributes will remain oblivious and the sponsor's will think you are both smart and impressive? _But! _ If you go for the latter tactic you will have to kill a lot of people to impress the sponsor's in the arena."

I clenched when I heard that. Killing people was the one thing I didn't want to do but knew was unavoidable. Alec reached for my hand under the table and grabbed it with his own, holding it firmly as if he was protecting me from James.

"Alec?" James asked.

"Yes?"

"What tactic do you want to go for?"

"I don't know." Alec sighed. "I mean, my spear fighting is probably not going to give me very high points and on the other hand, it's not very much to show off in the arena. That is _if_ I even get a spear from the cornucopia. So I don't know. What do you think, James?"

"Well, I disagree with you saying that spear fighting won't give you high points because: 1. It quite alike sword fighting and they give a hell of a high point for that so it's a big chance for low points and 2. Spear fighting is a little bit unusual just like axe fighting and they gamemakers do like creativity. So I think you should show them your skills in spear fighting. It may surprise you."

Alec nodded slowly. "I just hope the points will be high enough."

James looked at me, probably waiting for me to talk about my tactic. A took a deep breath and started to tremble slightly. Alec hardened his grip on my hand. Not in any painful way, but in a reassuring and protecting way as if to say _don't worry, you're okay_. I loved that about him, I really did, that out of nowhere he could just walk in and comfort anyone from anything at any time without it being weird. My angel! After another calming breath that didn't help much I started to talk about what Alec had already gone through.

"I think that we both have almost the same issue, Alec and I" I said. "I'm particularly skilled in anything. I just walked around and learned things, a little from every station, and I don't think that'll give me very high points and it's definitely not anything that'll surprise the sponsors in the arena. So what should I do?"

"When I had lunch with one of the instructors yesterday, we talked about you, Ginny. She's the one from the running and climbing station and she told me that you finished a forest path rigged with traps no problems at all and in record time no less! She also told me that you waited for the other tributes to go to lunch so that no one would see your skill. Do you have any idea how clever that was? You're a freakin' genius Ginny!"

"I am?"

"Yes!" said Alec, smiling at me.

"Exactly" said James. "You think! To use your brain will take you longer than any weapon can. But just in case, is there any weapon you're skilled at?"

"I can throw a knife. But not very good. It only hits the stomach and…" I didn't get a chance to finish my rambling because James interrupted me.

"Well that is always something, isn't?"

"I guess but…"

"No! No buts! Listen, you go in that training centre and show everything you know. Don't bother just picking just one thing. Show off everything. Okay?"

I sighed. "Alright" I said. "I'm just gonna check something before we go." I rose from the table and started to walk away towards my room.

"Don't take too much time!" said James behind me. "We have to go in just a couple of minutes." I nodded in response, but I'm not very sure that James saw it.

Honestly, I didn't need to check something. I just wanted a couple of second alone before we went down. And I wanted Alec to be there with me. I wanted him to hold me the way he had on the train, to make me feel calmer.

It was like a higher power had heard my wish somehow because suddenly there was a knock on the door and Alec stepped in.

"Are you okay, Ginny?" he asked full of concern.

I shrugged and walked over to the window to look out on the ugly candy landscape that was our capitol. "I'm nervous" I said. "But then again, who isn't?"

"The careers, maybe?" said Alec, surprisingly, not sarcastic at all. I laughed. "Probably not."

Alec crossed the room and stood beside me. He looked out just like me and just like me he looked at the houses with dread in his eyes. "It's horrible isn't? This world."

I nodded. "Yes it is, very horrible." It went a few minutes before any of us spoke. "But we have each other." I didn't know what made me say that and I felt embarrassed the minute I'd said it. But Alec looked at me and smiled. The sun made his eyes glitter and he looked very sweet with freckles across his face. He embraced me and hugged me tightly. It was a dream come true and I never wanted him to let go. I could stay in that moment forever.

"I'm glad I have you" he said.

"I'm glad I have you too" I answered.

I didn't get to stay there forever unfortunately. James came soon after and hurried us down the elevator and in to the waiting room.

The careers sat comfortably in their chairs, small talking.

The girl with the blonde hair sat with her arms crossed and talking very quietly to herself. I could only see her lips moving slightly and she was probably going through what she was going to show the gamemakers.

The boy from her district sat beside her, looking just as grumpy as usual. He starred right ahead on the screen on the other side of the room where the name of the current tribute that was inside the training center was. Right now the screen only showed Panems sign so I guessed it hadn't started yet.

There was two girls sitting together, holding hands and with their heads down. One of them talked just as quiet as the blonde girl and it looked like they prayed. But praying wouldn't help much.

The boy from district three sat alone again as far away from everyone else as possible.

Because of our tactic, Alec sat down at one table alone and I sat down at the same table where the blonde girl and the grumpy boy sat.

Eventually a voice said the girl from district 1's name, while 1's sign was shown at the screen along with her name under that. Crystal Rambyn…

Crystal walked with confident and proud steps towards the door that lead to the training room. She threw her long, white-blond hair out of her face as she walked.

The time passed as the other tributes before me walked in. When Alec walked towards the door I couldn't help but look up to him and I saw him walk with a focused expression on his face.

Then, about ten minutes later, it was my turn. The voice said my name and it was shown on the screen. I did not like the thought of everyone knowing my name, but what could I do about it? When I stood up the girl with the strawberry blond hair gave me a small smile and surprisingly I returned it before I walked in.

The gamemakers were all seated on their little balcony as always and it felt quite empty without everyone else there.

"Ms Cade!" said a plump man with weird orange hair. "You have ten minutes to perform what you have chosen. Starting now!"

Oh god! What should I do? I had a plan in mind but when I said that, he made me unprepared. As quickly as I could I ran towards the path station and selected a pretty tough one.

A managed it quite well in my opinion, but the gamemakers didn't flinch. Then I ran an even more tougher, after that I showed them that I could put together a climbing gear and I used it to climb up the fake mountain wall, I showed them that I could climb without gear by climbing up some trees and the mountain again. Later I made some traps and fire but I saved the weapons to last. When I had done everything I could possibly imagine I walked over to the wrestling station and did some of the kicks, punches and blocks that I had learned. But the last thing I did was throw some knifes. Most of them only hit the stomach but two actually hit the chest and I became very proud.

"Thank you, Ms Cade" said the plump gamemaker. "You may go through that door." He pointed to a small door beside the main entrance.

The door lead to a corridor and when I came through that I ended up in the empty space between the lift and the waiting room. I just wanted to sleep for the rest of the day so I went up to the fifth floor but I didn't get to sleep because the minute I got in James came storming to me and demanded to know what I showed the gamemakers. After 15 minutes I managed to shake him off and started to go towards my room when I heard a low voice talking to itself. It was saying things like "It'll be okay" and "Don't worry". It was Alec. Was he really that worried? If he was, it was the first time I saw it. He was good at hiding it so maybe he'd been all along.

I changed direction and started to walk to Alec instead. He sat on his bed, with his face in his hands and he was talking low to himself. I knocked on the already open door.

"Hi" I said. "How are you feeling?"

"Hi" answered Alec. "As alright as anyone can be in our situation, thank you. How about you?"

"Alright I guess. If you ignore the fact that we will be sent into an arena to kill each other in like a day or two. What are you worried about? Your training points?"

Alec nodded. "Mmm-hmm. But the thing is, I don't even know if a want high points or low points to get the tributes to ignore me."

"Well, I think that you should be proud of yourself if you get high points and if you get low points that can also be a good thing because then as you said, they won't notice you. But you what?"

Alec shook his head slowly and I walked over to his bed, sat down and grabbed his hand between my two.

"Screw that! That score is just a number. You can do anything you set your mind to. Regardless off if you have sponsors or not." Alec gave a little laugh.

"You're beginning to sound like James." I was embarrassed by that comment so I looked down. "That wasn't a bad thing, you know."

We spent hours just talking after that. It was wonderful we went through everything from our favorite color too making fun of capitol clothing style. My favorite color is white. We got to the part where we explained what we showed the gamemakers how we felt.

"But if anyone should complain it's me because I only showed them two offensive things, the rest was just survival and that I can run fast and that will hardly be enough to…" I babbled.

"Ginny" said Alec and interrupted me.

"Yes?"

"Shut up…" He slowly leaned in towards me and I understood that he was going to kiss me. My heart was pounding. My very first kiss! I just hoped that I didn't suck at kissing. I could count every freckle in his face and…

"Come here my darlings!" shouted Flower and Alec was so shocked that he immediately pulled away and I felt hopelessly sad. "The training score is about to be announced!"

"We should go" said Alec and walked away without another word.

**Don't forget to hit the little review button down below! ;) Thanks! **

**Ps. Flower really knows when to call for Ginny and Alec, doesn't she? Moment wrecker… ;) **


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